Thursday, September 24, 2009

Ken Howard's election to national president of the Screen Actors Guild amounts to a repudiation of the uncompromising strategy that previous prexy Alan Rosenberg embodied during his four-year tenure.

With an impressive 47% of the vote after a bitter race, Howard's win for a two-year term sets the stage for the next round of contract negotiations -- and once again raises questions of a merger with sister thesp guild AFTRA.

Over the past few years, SAG has been run by ... how do I put this delicately? ... fanatics* who are totally divorced from reality.

Let's look at the recent handiwork of these folks. They negotiated a three-year contract that had 3% annual wage increases, but by cleverly dragging their feet for the better part of a year and not getting it ratified in a timely manner, they were able to whittle down contractual increases to 2% per year ((0%, 3%, 3%).

Happily, the geniuses behind this strategy no longer hold a majority on SAG's national board, so there is a marginally better chance that there won't be an industry shutdown in 2011. I hope.

* "Fanatics" in this contest are people who keep doing the same things over and over ... and failing.

The thoughts and observations of the leaders of The Animation Guild (TAG), Local 839 IATSE. Jason MacLeod is the Business Representative, KC Johnson is the President. Mike Sauer is Assistant to the Business Representative.

This weblog reflects their individual personal opinions and does not necessarily represent the official position of the Animation Guild.

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